mE

I am a 27 year old social worker and doctoral student working on improving my fitness. This blogs is a place for me to write about my experiences with fitness and fitness communities as a fat , feminist woman with disabilities. Sometimes things might go off the topic of fitness but that is the general theme.

My trying to smile right after the workout (before stretching and foam rolling)

So the second reboot run with Fat Girls’ Guide to Running, this time the run is meant to be just slightly longer- travel out 12 minutes and turn around and head back the same way.

I was actually planning initially to just go for a walk, of course was planning it to be Thursday but didn’t get out until after midnight, thus technically Friday. I am going to try to go for more walks in addition to my runs in order to get me more consistent in getting out the door. Technically the reboot specifies just travelling, and it can be walking. But the end goal is being more consistent in my running, so I wanted to use all the planned reboot runs as runs. So when I looked at the calendar and realized the week was nearly over with me needing 2 more reboot runs still, I decided I needed to run, not just walk.

Of course I was not feeling very up to it. Thursday morning I had meetings on campus and just walking around there felt so awful. Plantar fasciitis has been extra bad recently, so there is that. Combined with my legs not wanting to move from still being super sore from squats Tuesday (though side note, so happy to be making progress on those! Squatted 200lbs Tuesday and it actually didn’t feel bad at the time… though the DOMS later!)

After I got home from campus I was planning to workout but ended up lying around on my couch for awhile instead too tired to do anything at all. Eventually got some dinner and then took a nap. It was after midnight by the time I woke up, and was feeling much better and able to actually do some workouts.

So like last time I included warm up and cool down walk in the out and back timing. I headed out with runkeeper set for a 5 minute warm up walk, 7 minutes running which will give me notification at the end for when to turn around, and then another 7 minute run, and cool down walk.

One thing that was in the Fat Girls’ Guide to Running reboot description was an idea that is new to me- to allow that you can walk whenever you want, but only for 60 seconds at a time. So I decided that was my plan for my running. I would slow to a walk if I wanted, but for not longer than 60 seconds at a time. The first time I slowed to a walk it was for only about 10 seconds, but as soon as I went back to running I realized I needed to amend the rule for myself. My amended rule was that after walking I had to run for at least 60 seconds. Because immediately after starting into a run I want to slow down and walk again.

But my 60 second minimum rule seemed to work well for me because 1 minute seems the right length of time I need to feel like “ok, I can keep going”. I slowed for a walk again during my first half, this time for about 30 seconds, then back to running. 7 minutes up I headed back toward my house, slowed to a walk I think 3 times during the 7 minute run back, about 30 seconds each until the last one when I used my whole minute of walking. Cool down walk ended up being slightly over 5 minutes though as I was a bit slower on my way home.

Side note: I should be starting a new job soon, and so anxious to get started with it! And already making mental lists of things I need to buy once I have a steady income again. The top things on that list are all workout related.

Kinesio tape- I’ve been out awhile and it does make a huge difference.

New vibrams running shoes! The blisters from mine definitely make running harder.

New sports bras! Not that mine even bad, but more is good. And more specifically I want some front-closure sports bras. I am so over pull on style sports bras. I do not enjoy putting that much effort into just getting dressed for a workout. Since the band part needs to be snug around my ribcage… and thus smaller than the places I needs to be pulled over. Back clasp bras are better than pull over ones, but still, I am coming to hate sports bras even though they are necessary, so I want ones that are as simple as possible to get in and out of.

Anyways, back to the workout- I actually suppose I didn’t need to cool down after my run since it was not the end of my workout. I decided to start with that, then do deadlifts (deload week), and short complex that included OHP so I’m counting that as my OHP deload (as it was basically the same weight as my deloads would be). While working on being more consistent for running (and walking), I also want to make sure it does not interfere with my lifting. So it was important to me to get the deload/complex workout in as well as the run.

Then stretching and foam rolling.

Looked on youtube for foam rolling videos for the first time ever and found one that taught me a lot of new ways to roll areas and it was really great! Especially the shin rolling. Never done that before and my shins were so tight, it felt great!

Since my last time running I’ve been doing some reading about Pose Running as well as more about Chi Running. I did a Tai Chi group fitness thing at the fitness center in undergrad way back when in undergrad and looking into Chi Running more I’ve been thinking it might help to start doing more Tai Chi again. I’ve been doing a little bit of what I could remember recently, though I don’t remember too much of the little bit I learned.

Maybe helped a little bit because as I started out on my warm up walk, after 10 minutes of Yoga, and felt more than before the feeling of being pulled forward some. So that was good. Then after the 5 minute warm up walk, I moved into 5 minutes of running. But I had trouble controlling my speed with the pulling forward feeling, and couldn’t maintain the speed it had me at, so I ended up not being able to keep that feeling either.

I also still suck at telling how long I’ve been running. 2 minutes into the run Dr. Myers says “good job…” and I’m like ‘cool, 5 minutes done…’ until she continues with saying I have done 2 out of the 5 minutes. Not until after that that I realized how stupid I am- I’ve been running the same route recently and the 5 minute warm up walk then 5 minutes running takes me past the cemetery and I still had a ways to go before I was past it so due, it hadn’t been that long.

Super slow jogging from the start.

After that was 30 seconds walking, 1 minute running, and 6 heel lifts repeated 8 times. First interval set where the walking didn’t feel long enough for me to really feel fully ‘recovered’ from the running. My last 3 sets of running intervals were the most pathetic “jogging” attempts.

Then it was a 10 minute free form run. Though the first 15-30 seconds of the run was spent just standing/dancing because it started when I was waiting for traffic to clear to cross the street. Other than that I managed to run the 10 minutes, albeit very, very slowly. I was about 8 minutes in when my calves and side were cramping up and my feet hurting, but I kept going. Also came close to injuring myself when I didn’t notice a whole on the ground and rolled my ankle- somehow managed to not injure it though.

Bad timing for when it stopped though, because I ended right in front of Tim Horton’s/Cold Stone, which smelled so good. Walked a little bit away before I started stretching. Still really want some Cold Stone, mmm.

After that was another 10 minute free form run, which was even slower, but still managed it barely. The hardest part through the last 10 minutes was trying to ignore the blisters forming on my feet :-\ I definitely need to get new vibrams. I also definitely am currently too broke for new vibrams though. So, for now, I’ll just need to deal with the blisters from them.

This was the first time I was out for a run this summer and the mosquitoes actually seemed to be a problem.

Also I saw what looked like a huge cockroach crawling on the sidewalk, ewww!

Also saw a dead mouse on the sidewalk 😦 That one was sad. I like mice and rats. I don’t want to live with them, but they are cute and I hate seeing them dead.

So I have been running in vibrams for… years now. The black and grey pair in the photo are bikilas and were my first pair of vibrams. They lasted me several years but the bottoms were wearing away so 8 months back I got the grey and pink ones which are seeyas ls. I mention in my last running post that my feet were hurting making it hard to run any distance at all. Specifically it was my arches that hurt. So I started wondering if I should get a more supportive running show (eventually down the line, one day when I have money), but then ended up in my looking coming across the bikilas again. And the description for them said they were specifically meant for running with a bit more heel cushioning and more arch support than most vibrams. I never got rid of my old bikilas, so this run I decided to wear them to compare. I seemed to have a little bit less arch pain this time though still some. Of course given how worn out the shoes are who knows how much can be gathered from that.

Still I’m not sure what the right solution for shoes is. I love the vibrams for the most part and I HATE those bulky stabilizing shoes (which is what I found a lot of recommendation for. ugh, no!) But not infrequently I feel like I need just a little bit more arch support than I get in my current vibrams.

Of course I have no money for new shoes at the moment anyways, so it’s not like they will be getting replaced anytime soon one way or the other.

So week 2 was a 10 minute warm up walk, *30 seconds jogging, 5 heel lifts, 1 minute walking*, repeat * 5 times, and a 10 minute “free form run”. Looking at the timing on my phone I discovered the 10 minute warm up walk definitely isn’t just 10 minutes. They start with a little intro talk which I always walk during before they announce the start of the 10 minute warm up walk, and I checked today for sure that it starts counting this time but it doesn’t count toward the 10 minute warm up, so that added a minute, then it was about another minute between when the warmup walk was announced to be over and Dr. Meyers tells you to start your first 30 second jog, so it is quite a long warmup! For my free form run this time I did 1 minute jogging with 1 minute walking intervals the whole time.

Though I had a bit of a scare when I got back to my house, as I approached my house a dark grey cat ran from my porch- the same color as my cat, Blake. I was freaked out he had somehow snuck outside with me and I didn’t notice. I tried running after but the cat kept running from me. So I went inside to check if Blake was inside, and sure enough he ran to great me at the door (who says that is a dog only trait?). Thank goodness! Had me worried.

Today was actually quite an active day for me. Started with deadlifts early in the morning followed by 35 minutes of yoga, then went to sleep, Blake woke me up after just a few hours and it wasn’t that late so I went out and mowed my lawn and did some other yardwork for awhile, came back inside, took a shower, rested a bit, then got dressed and headed out for my run, then 20 minute post run yoga cool down. Now a big dinner and then going to sleep soon.

I’ve been slacking on my yoga recently so need to start doing this much (or more) yoga more often again.